PREAMBLE

India is proud to own a vast treasure of spiritual wisdom. We had spiritual luminaries, selfless social reformers and men and women who worked for the real uplifting of our society to transform them into a vast family of great culture following the principle of Vasudaiva Kudumbakam -Universal Family.

The Vedic utterances govern all aspects of man’s life. The Vedas do not distinguish mankind as high or low. Vedas contain guidelines for Peace and Harmony. They are called “Dharma Sastras” which form the first of the two major divisions of the Vedas, the other one being “Tathwa Sastras”. They never preach that men should not enjoy life, but they add, “Let this be in accordance with Dharma”.

Unity in Diversity at the world level is the favorite theory of the Vedas. No religion other than Vedic religion tolerates the existence of another. It never claims any exclusiveness; the fundamental theory is that God is ONE.

Swami Dayananda Saraswathi is one of the holy persons amongst us who has a deep understanding of traditions and culture and also a vision for future and here is an excerpt from one of his interviews with TR.

Q: How do you justify rituals in one’s quest for spirituality and God?

Ans: In fact the rituals make this religion great. So do prayers. Just take the example of penicillin. If you have a headache and you take penicillin, it is overkill. You have to take specific medicines for specific ailments. Like that, you have specific prayers for specific occasions. If you have an eye problem, I can invoke Ishwara as a Devata presiding over eyes.
There is only one Ishwara but there are different manifestations. It also depends on how we see them. There are eyes your eyes, my eyes, eyes of owl, lizard etc. Not all see it the same way.
That is why Indian rituals are the greatest. The Vedic rituals are not ordinary. Everything is a form, your language is a form, namaste is a form and your dress is a form.

Q: Can spirituality thrive on empty stomachs?

Ans: There’s spirituality on one side and on the other hand empty stomachs. True. People’s problems have to be attended to, and the State has to do that. But there is a lot of confusion as, because of State’s failure, the Hindu religion is being reviled. Spirituality cannot be sustained on empty stomach. But it is spirituality that can sustain the empty stomach.
Religion has nothing to do with all that. It is to make you human and divine and then to take you to divinity, the source of divinity. We all can go up to that point. And that is the role of religion.